Bagaya was born in Kabarole, in 1936.
She attended elementary school at Kyebambe Girls School in Uganda. Afterwards, she was sent to Gayaza High School, a prestigious girls boarding school before proceeding to the United Kingdom.
In 1962, she graduated from the University of Cambridge with a law degree and three years later in 1965 she qualified as a barrister-at-law, at London’s Gray’s Inn.
She became the first woman from East Africa to be admitted to the English Bar.
Unfortunately, at about this time, Bagaya’s father died, and so her brother, Rukirabasaija Patrick David Matthew Koboyo Olimi III, ascended to the throne.
she returned home, where she joined Kazzora and Co, a law firm in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. She completed a six-month internship at the firm before she was called to the Ugandan bar in 1966, becoming the first woman to do so.
In 1967, Bagaya, she received a personal invitation in 1967 from Princess Margaret and her husband Lord Snowdon to participate in a widely publicized Commonwealth fashion show at Marlborough House in London. After this appearance, she began her modelling career.
Between 1968 and 1970, she took her modeling career to New York, where she signed to the Ford Agency, the top modeling agency in America at the time.
Considering her successful modeling career, the Ford Agency advised her to enroll in acting classes. She did so at the American Place Theatre and went on to act in a few films, including “Bullfrog in the Sun” (based on Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart) and “Sheena: Queen of the Jungle.”
In 1971, Idi Amin overthrew the Obote government in Uganda and Bagaya once again returned to Uganda to serve her country. Her first appointment under Amin was as Roving Ambassador, where for three years she used her fame and connections to get direct access to various presidents and dignitaries.
This position led to her appointment as Foreign Minister in February 1974. Even though her tenure as Foreign Minister was short from February to November 1974, Bagaya revived Uganda’s tarnished image abroad, attempted to soothe hostilities, and encouraged heads of state to visit the country .
Her tenure as Foreign Minister was cut short as her relationship with Amin soured over claims that she planned to overthrow him.
Bagaya left Uganda in 1974 and sought political asylum in Britain. She kept a low profile until she returned to Uganda in 1979 when Amin’s government was overthrown.
She fled the country once more after the 1980s chaotic elections returning in 1985.
Museveni appointed Bagaya as Uganda’s Ambassador to the United States between 1986 and 1988.
After her husband Wilbur Nyabongo died in December 1986, Bagaya made the decision to leave public service and get involved in charity work. She resigned from her position as Ugandan Ambassador to the United States on July 21, 1988 and began promoting different causes through television appearances and her book, “Elizabeth of Toro: The Odyssey of an African Princess”, published in 1989 .
For the last 35 years, she has lived a quiet life oscillating between Kabarole and Kampala.
Story sourced from various sources
